Misfire or rough idle on the 2003 Ford Escape
2 injuries 2 of the 12 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When misfire or rough idle gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Ford Escape report misfire or rough idle at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 81,275 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43,625 miles | 43,625 miles | 54,000 miles | 103,000 miles | 124,900 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 an injury is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$1,600 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 407; the 2003 has 12. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I had a 2003 ford escape that started having problems starting. It was usually when I had left the vehicle for 8 or more hours. I would try to start it and it would hesitate and take a while to start it. After a few tries it would jerk back at me and start. This was a problem for about 2-months. On may 26, 2006 I left my vehicle in the parking lot at work. It was the first really hot day (90+ degrees) of the year. When I got back to my car it hesitated when I cranked it. I cranked it again and it popped back and me and then there was an explosion. There was smoke coming out of the hood. I opened the hood (burning my finger in the process) and found parts and pieces everywhere. I took it to the ford dealership and the upper intake manifold blew apart. The dealer never gave us a reason why (we pushed but we were told that it shouldn't have happened and that the engineer was on vacation). We had the upper intake manifold fixed and it cost us a lot of money out-of-pocket. I asked them for the old upper intake manifold back, but they wouldn't give it back. I was always intending to file a complaint. The ford was 3-years old with 54,000…
I had a 2003 ford escape that started having problems starting. It was usually when I had left the vehicle for 8 or more hours. I would try to start it and it would hesitate and take a while to start it. After a few tries it would jerk back at me and start. This was a problem for about 2-months. On may 26, 2006 I left my vehicle in the parking lot at work. It was the first really hot day (90+ degrees) of the year. When I got back to my car it hesitated when I cranked it. I cranked it again and it popped back and me and then there was an explosion. There was smoke coming out of the hood. I opened the hood (burning my finger in the process) and found parts and pieces everywhere. I took it to the ford dealership and the upper intake manifold blew apart. The dealer never gave us a reason why (we pushed but we were told that it shouldn't have happened and that the engineer was on vacation). We had the upper intake manifold fixed and it cost us a lot of money out-of-pocket. I asked them for the old upper intake manifold back, but they wouldn't give it back. I was always intending to file a complaint. The ford was 3-years old with 54,000…
I have a ford 2003 escape 6 cyl. Bought in may of 2004 new - 76 miles on it test driven from a dealer in schulenburg, tx - the check engine light came on - the PCM computer went out and blew a spark plug on 1/16/2011 - I had to replace the PCM (which I was told should have been a recall on the 2003 ford escape) since this should never go out on the car. The mileage was only 43,625 on 1/16/2011 when this happened. I have the car for 7-8 yrs. Now. I had to replace the PCM with a remanufactured (since it would cost way more for a new one) PCM - electronic ignition costing me just over $2,100. Again, this part was intended to never go out for the life of the car, period. This should have been a recall on ford motor companies part - and I was told to complain and record this to NHTSA as others have, and if enough do, they would have to recall. I am not sure if I am in the right place to place this complaint. *tr
Also reported on the 2003 Ford Escape
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does misfire or rough idle happen on the 2003 Ford Escape?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is misfire or rough idle on the 2003 Ford Escape?
12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed